Slim Cessna's Auto Club

There's an ambiguity at the core of Slim Cessna's ravings about sin and damnation that's even scarier than the harrowing tales themselves. The disquieting realization that Slim's holy-roller sextet might take the band's grotesque revelations of rampaging religious bile at all seriously puts a razor-like edge on music already engorged on high-octane country, gospel, and punk. SCAC is based in Denver and has recorded a half-dozen or so albums for Jello Biafra's Alternative Tentacles label. The latest, Unentitled, features a white country church on its cover apparently about to be engulfed by a blood-red tide. What is clear is that Slim and his congregation are true believers when it comes to music. The band has been widely praised for its musicianship, Americana roots, and incendiary live shows, and there's nothing diffident about the banjos' on-the-brink-of-hell intensity or Cessna's gothic country yodels. Jezebel Jones & Her Wicked Ways and Housepet open. 18+. (Photo by Gary Isaacs)
Tue., July 31, 8 p.m., 2012